South by Southwest 2005: Rachel Loy at Momo’s in Austin

Rachel Loy kicked off the St. Patrick’s Day festivities Thursday (3/17) at Momo’s, clad in green and starting the night with a great mix of smart, playful and very tuneful adult pop.
Loy brings quite a bit to the table as a tunesmith. The 13 tracks on her just-released “Love the Mess” feel more crafted, more considered and more important to the person singing than most of what’s been coming out of pop radio’s hook factories for most of the past decade. Quite a feat for someone just cracking the 21-year-old threshold.

On stage, Loy and her 6-piece band crackle with spunk and energy. Loy handles bass duties and mines a great, full-throated girl-tone, somewhere between Natalie Imbruglia and Susanna Hoffs. Loy’s set didn’t veer from the album’s tracks or noticeably from the album’s arrangements. Standout numbers included “Drive Around,” a gem that’s one of the strongest tracks on the album, and Loy’s ode to a smothering paramour, “Love Me Too Much.”

Published by Richard Tafoya

Richard Tafoya is a music journalist, photographer and web developer living in Los Angeles. This site is a mix of original posts and unedited versions of material created for other publications.
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